Do not use your phone abroad without preparing or your bill will be shocking!

The difference between American and European mobile phone providers are vast, and the modern traveler is likely to run afoul if they are unprepared, running up a surprisingly large bill! Here’s a rundown of my standard techniques to prepare my American mobile phone for travel abroad.

Frequency Compatibility

The first thing to do when considering a trip abroad is checking whether your phone supports the technology and frequencies used by the carriers in the country will visit. The majority of European carriers rely on the 900 and 1800 MHz bands for GSM voice, SMS, and low-speed data, and the 2100 MHz band for high-speed 3G HSPA data service.

Only AT&T and T-Mobile use the same GSM technology as most European and other international providers, but this does not mean that all of their phones will function correctly overseas. Although nearly every American GSM phone is capable of voice calling and text messaging in Europe, 3G data service is another story entirely.

Neither AT&T nor T-Mobile uses the same 3G HSPA frequencies that are standard in Europe. Many phones, including my iPhone 4S, support the European frequencies as well, offering high-speed data in both Europe and America. But others only support one or the other set of frequencies for high-speed data. This is the reason my unlocked Huawei E585 is useless in the USA.

Check the specifications of your phone to see if it supports the 900/1800/2100 MHz bands for both GSM and HSPA. Note that Verizon, Sprint, and many smaller operators using entirely different technology that isn’t compatible at all with European providers. These companies do sell a few “world phones”, including the iPhone 4S. But the earlier Verizon iPhone 4 will not work in Europe.

Preparing Your AT&T Account for Use Abroad

Assuming your phone will work abroad, it is wise to consider the cost of various services while roaming. There are essentially three considerations when using the phone outside its home territory:

• Voice calling can be expensive unless a special plan is purchased at a time. Note that European carriers do not charge for incoming calls, though American carriers do.
• SMS text messaging can also be surprisingly expensive when roaming. Although most Europeans have unlimited messaging plans, and their carriers do not charge for incoming messages, many Americans have only a small allowance of text messages and are charged in both directions.
• Data service can be the biggest shocker when traveling abroad. It is not unheard of for a few days of casual e-mail, navigation, and web use to cost over $1000 while roaming abroad.

When I’m traveling abroad, I always contact AT&T ahead of time and activate features on my plan to offset these costs. Here are my recommended settings:

• AT&T’s “World Traveler” plan costs $5.99 per month but reduces the cost of voice calls from of $1.39 to $.99 per minute. If you plan to talk for more than 40 minutes, this is a win.
• AT&T also offers a variety of “Global Messaging” plans, which allow you to send SMS text messages much cheaper. I usually purchase the $10 “Global Messaging 50” plan, which includes 50 prepaid outbound text messages. This works out to $.20 per message rather than the normal rate of $.50, giving you a break even point at 34 messages.
• Data remains a problem, even though AT&T offers a variety of “Data Global” add-on packages. I usually purchase the cheapest 50 MB “Data Global Add-On” package, which includes 50 MB of data for $24.99. This may seem expensive, but it’s nowhere near as much as AT&T’s normal rate of almost $.02 per kilobyte. 50 MB of Data Global is an astonishing $973.41 (40 times) less expensive!

Don’t Rely on Data Roaming

I highly recommend purchasing a local mobile broadband device to avoid extortionate roaming charges

Even with Data Global, however, it really is not practical to use data roaming outside the United States. This is why I recommend purchasing a local “MiFi” device and 3G data plan in whatever country you will be visiting. I am bringing my Huawei E585 with me to the UK for Dell Storage Forum, recharged with 3 GB of data for just £15.

I’m really only purchasing AT&T Data Global as insurance in case I need data and the MiFi is not available for some reason. You can ring up $24.99 of data roaming charges in less than 5 seconds after using just 1.25 MB without a plan like that. It’s extortion, but that’s AT&T for you.

I will often call AT&T to activate these services a few days before leaving. They are sometimes offered to automatically cancel the service when I return, or at least give me a call back so I can cancel it. If you activate these features online, remember to deactivate them afterwards since they offer no value if you are not traveling.

You should also read An Inexpensive Mobile Broadband Alternative When Traveling in the UK and Wireless Internet Access During My Trip To The Netherlands

Stephen’s Stance

Before traveling abroad with an AT&T phone, I recommend going online or calling the company and activating 3 features: “World Traveler” for voice, “Global Messaging” for SMS, and “Data Global” for data service. I also advise purchasing a local 3G “MiFi” and turning off Data Roaming on your iPhone, even though this would seem a waste of the $24.99 Data Global plan. I imagine T-Mobile has similar offerings for world travelers, and Verizon and Sprint as well as long as a “world phone” is used.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2012. | How to Prepare Your AT&T Phone for Travel Abroad
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The CradlePoint MBR1200 forms the heart of my new mobile Internet system

The Tech Field Day events I run are hotspots of social media, but it has been hard building an Internet presence to keep up. Constantly on the move, I need a flexible network with scalability and failover (and fail-back) between 3G/4G and wired Internet. My latest design relies on CradlePoint’s MBR1200 “Failover Router”, which can load-balance across multiple 3G and 4G data cards.

Introducing the CradlePoint MBR1200

My trusty CradlePoint PHS300 has been a constant companion at my events, from Tech Field Day to trade shows, conferences, and seminars. I set my SSID to “AskFoskett” and share 3G data to any who need it. But Tech Field Day has outgrown the bandwidth of a single 3G card, so I am stepping up my network hardware.

The MBR1200 is designed to be an always-on network access point, offering Wi-Fi and wired Ethernet connectivity and both wired and multiple 3G/4G WAN ports. It will use wired Ethernet connectivity when available and fails over to the 3G or 4G mobile network whenever required.

Perhaps the coolest trick of the MBR1200 is its ability to use multiple 3G or 4G modems at once. It load balances connections across up to five such devices, even over multiple networks. In my experiments, the MBR1200 did indeed balance fairly across a Novatel U720 on Sprint and a Novatel MiFi 2200 on Virgin. Though both use Sprint’s CDMA 3G network, throughput appeared to double when I brought the second modem on line.

The old PHS300 was battery powered, but the MBR1200 requires a wall AC or 12 volt mobile supply. This is not ideal for my use, but I imagine my Field Day delegates will tolerate a few minutes’ outage as we set up and tear down. They will likely appreciate the improved throughput of the MBR1200, though, with its more-powerful CPU and dual 802.11N radios.

3G and 4G Modems

My events have all been in the USA so far, so this section will be very location-specific.

I had previously used a 3G USB modem on the Sprint network through reseller Millenicom. They offered true unlimited data (unknown elsewhere in the US) for just $69. But the throughput of this service grew progressively slow lately, so I finally gave up.

Virgin Mobile has the best mobile broadband offering in the USA currently. I purchased a Novatel MiFi 2200 at Wal-Mart for $129. Although I’m no fan of the big-box chain, purchasing it there made me eligible for an “unlimited” (in reality, 5 GB per month) plan at $40 with no contract. The MiFi tethers to the CradlePoint routers for broad sharing or allows independent use by up to five users. The service uses the Sprint 3G network, just like my Millenicom plan, but seems faster.

There are three higher-speed mobile broadband offerings in the USA currently. Although none offers the performance once promised by 4G, all easily beat older 3G CDMA and GSM offerings.

Clearwire and Sprint share a WiMax-based network, and this is my first target. They have solid coverage and inexpensive unlimited data options. I have heard that Sprint does not throttle or cap heavy users like Clear does, so I’ll start looking there. The Sprint 250U looks like a good choice – widely available and supported by CradlePoint.

Next up is Verizon, which is building out an LTE 4G network. Although like Sprint Verizon requires a 2-year contract, they also offer a supported modem, the Pantech UML290.

Then there is T-Mobile USA, which brands its HSPA+ network as 4G. Although perhaps not technically 4G, this network offers higher performance than either competing network. The ZTE MF691 is supported by CradlePoint.

Shopping List

CradlePoint donated an MBR1200 to the cause after presenting at Networking Field Day, but I am still working on securing adequate 3G and 4G connectivity. Here’s my setup so far:

1. Failsafe Gigabit N Router for Mobile Broadband – The router itself
2. External Wifi Antennas for MBR1200 – Dual extended antennas
3. MBR1200 Modem Security Enclosure – A snap-on cover for the modems
4. Auto power adapter (5v, 2a) – Power on the go
5. Virgin Mobile Novatel MiFi 2200 – Virgin Mobile’s 3G modem

They support many, many modems, but not all. I’m also considering one of the following:

1. Sprint 3G/4G USB 250U modem
2. Verizon Pantech UML290 LTE 4G modem

Update!

As noted in the comments, CradlePoint suggests considering the following hardware instead:

1. MBR1400 Business Series N Wireless Router – This adds Wi-Fi to Wi-Fi “WiFi as WAN” to the MBR1200′s already impressive capabilities. Cool!
2. They suggest using an extension cord to place any WiMax modem a bit apart from the Wi-Fi radio since they tend to overlap. I know they’ve done extensive testing with radios, and I appreciate the advice!
3. CradlePoint suggests the Novatel 551 LTE modem, which is available from Verizon.

I went out and bought Clear’s PXU1900 WiMAX modem and Verizon’s Novatel MiFi 4151l to test these services. Read my follow-up posts:

Stephen’s Stance

This is very much a work in progress. The CradlePoint is great, but I’m not sure about the modems. I’ll post more once I have more experience. Until then, your bandwidth may vary!

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2011. | Building a Combination 3G/4G/Wired Wi-Fi Network
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With 18 (!) models to choose from, which iPad is the best choice?

Apple may make their product lines easy to understand, with simple and consistent names, but there sure are a lot of iPad 2 models. Which iPad is the best choice? I picked the 32 GB Wi-Fi model personally, but I can see cases where others might prefer a 3G or base model. Let’s consider it.

The iPad 2 Model Lineup

There are no less than 18 different iPad 2 models:

All of these are iPad 2′s, and selecting one comes down to four basic questions:

1. How much storage do I want?
2. Do I want black or white?
3. Do I want Wi-Fi or 3G?
4. If I pick 3G, do I want GSM (AT&T) or CDMA (Verizon)?

Let’s take these questions in turn.

How Much iPad Storage Is Enough?

I bought a first-generation iPad the day they came out, and it’s seen heavy usage in my house. It was a base model with just 16 GB of capacity, and that’s really put a crimp on the media we could carry around with us. It was plenty for apps, but not enough for music or (especially) movies.

The iPad capacity decision really comes down to a single question: Do I want to store movies on this thing?

If you intend to carry around much video, get more than 16 GB capacity. 32 GB is enough for a few movies and 64 is enough for a few more. Most buyers pick the largest capacity point (no doubt they want to carry around enough to be entertained wherever they go) and a good number pick the smallest (they must not want to watch stored video). I split the difference and bought a 32 GB iPad 2 and it’s been plenty for my use, and I’m a fairly heavy air traveler. But apparently the rest of the world doesn’t agree, since 32 GB is by far the least-common size!

One reason I didn’t go for 64 GB is a new feature in iOS 4.3: AirTunes. It’s now possible to stream video and audio to the iPad and iPad 2 from a computer running iTunes. Since my desktop acts as an iTunes server at home and my laptop contains over 100 GB of music and video, I didn’t feel that I needed as much capacity as in earlier iOS versions. If I want to watch something at home, I can always stream it.

I also purchased the iPad Camera Connection Kit, which makes it possible to watch movies from an SD card. But it’s really finicky, and I’ve never actually done it in practice.

Black or White?

I don’t really care as much about the color decision. It’s up to personal taste, really.

• Black is more understated and traditional, and I feel that the black bezel “works better” when watching movies.
• White is new and different, drawing attention that this is an iPad 2. I felt that the white border was distracting when reading and watching movies, though.

I chose black.

Wi-Fi or 3G?

A 3G iPad is an amazing thing: Pull it out and use it anywhere, any time. It really transforms the use case of the iPad, making it a mobile companion for people on the go.

But many of us are always within range of Wi-Fi, whether it’s our home router, business access point, Starbucks or McDonald’s, or a MiFi. It’s not quite as seamless to use (you have to tell it to use this or that Wi-Fi network) but it’s faster and unlimited. It’s also $130 cheaper.

I picked Wi-Fi only, since I already carry three 3G devices (a Virgin Mobile MiFi, Cradlepoint router, and iPhone 4) and didn’t want another expensive radio. But I’m disappointed with the Wi-Fi range and sensitivity (it’s much worse than the MacBook Pro or any iPhone) and find that, because of a lack of always-on connectivity, I often turn back to the iPhone rather than using the iPad.

I recommend spending the extra money and getting a 3G radio, but which one?

GSM or CDMA?

This seems like a no-brainer, but it’s not so simple. Every Apple owner loves to hate AT&T, so going with Verizon for the iPad sounds great. But the Verizon CDMA model isn’t at all portable outside the United States, while the AT&T GSM model is unlocked and ready to use anywhere. This means the GSM iPad 2 is much more in demand and will likely hold its value better. Plus, AT&T’s network seems to work fine for most users I know.

On the other hand, Verizon’s data plans are somewhat cheaper than AT&T’s for many users. As CNN money reported, AT&T starts cheaper, but Verizon wins past 4 GB per month. This could really add up as time goes by!

Stephen’s Stance

I recommend getting the AT&T iPad 2 in either 16 or 64 GB capacity. Decide if you will want to take a lot of media with you and, if so, opt for the bigger iPad. It’s funny – my own choice was the exact opposite of this recommendation!

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2011. | Which iPad is the Best Choice?
This post was categorized as Apple, Ask a Pack Rat, Everything, Features, Personal, Terabyte home. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

The Ugly American

Europeans are familiar with the conceptual separation of mobile phone service from mobile phone hardware, but it is hard for Americans to grasp. Although locked mobile phones and contracts are common “over there” too, alternatives abound. With ubiquitous GSM service (and the accompanying standard SIM cards), Nigel or Jean or Enzo can expect to walk into a local store, select a (quite expensive) mobile handset, stick his old SIM card into it to transfer the number (and his contacts), and start talking. They might need to replace that SIM sometimes, or swap carriers, and definitely pay more for many services, but the portability and choice found in most other markets would shock an American.

We’re shackled to a few carriers who claw and fight for their share of the locked-in phone users by dangling exclusive subsidized handsets at a million outlets in every town and mall. Want an iPhone or a Moto Q or a Centro? Sign up for two more years, please, and maybe pay a few hundred to get out of your old contract and switch carriers. And forget taking a phone from one carrier to another, or buying a new unlocked phone at any retail store – they simply didn’t exist!

The World Has Turned

We were told that this had to do with our unique geography. Building out a “cell” network was massively expensive, and carriers had to have a guaranteed customer base to justify the investment. Although roaming was cripplingly expensive, the (real analog) cell phone system worked pretty well, and there were just a few handsets to pick from anyway.

But now it’s a different world. While AT&T/Cingular and T-Mobile jumped on the Euro-GSM bandwagon, Verizon and Sprint stuck with Qualcomm and we saw massive investment in incompatible digital networks just as handsets, mobile broadband, and media applications exploded. Stir in some mergers, MVNO’s, prepaid wireless, number portability, crummy coverage, and a succession of Jesus Phones, and you have an American public that desperately wants a more open system.

Opening in 2007

The industry took steps toward openness in 2007, setting the stage for what will come this year. Here’s an update:

• Apple’s iPhone is released with a strong AT&T lock, but sales are shared with online and brick-and-glass Apple Stores. More importantly, Apple takes over most customer service duties and shaves off a large (though unspecified) portion of monthly revenues. The cost of the phone is high but in line with its glamorous high-end predecessors from Motorola and Nokia.
• One more thing about the iPhone: AT&T lets current customers upgrade without any penalties, no matter how new their contract was.
• Verizon announces an open network policy, which turns out to be less than it sounded but is still a step in the right direction.
• AT&T decides to pro-rate early contract termination fees and seconds Verizon’s “any phone” claim. They also put up with Apple’s demands in order to capture half a million new customers.
• Google’s Open Handset Alliance includes Sprint and Qualcomm as well as T-Mobile and other GSM makers, signaling that Android-powered devices will be available for all US networks. Although these “open” handsets will not necessarily be any less locked than current devices, a new flexible platform might enable new entrants to the unlocked market.
• Google is successful in adding open access language to the 700 MHz spectrum auction.

Sharpening 2008′s Image

American wireless providers and handset makers have spent 2007 dancing around open(er) access, but openness got a late push from perennial geek pariah, Sharper Image. The store gadget lovers love to hate unveiled a line of unlocked GSM phones in November. The predictable ridicule directed towards these rebranded phones in geek circles (once they noticed, in December) totally misses the point: Sharper Image is selling the first widely available over-the-counter unlocked phones in the USA, heralding the day when their customers (regular folks, not you) decide to upgrade just their handset. I predict a similar move from Radio Shack, Costco, Wal-Mart, Circuit City, or Best Buy in 2008. I also expect Sprint and T-Mobile to reiterate that unlocked phones are welcome on their networks.

There is one more interesting thing about Sharper Image: they have stores inside every major airport in the USA! The next time Nigel comes across the pond, he might start a revolution by buying an unlocked handset at the Sharper Image airport shop just like he would back home at The Carphone Warehouse. And won’t Joe and Jane Mainstreet love the option of replacing the AT&T phone they just dropped in the sink, without extending their contract?

Net nerds have long scoured eBay for the latest unlocked phones, but not everyone is comfortable about the online purchases from sellers they don’t know. Once average people start buying phones without service plans at a store they trust, the floodgates will open.

In 2009, all major retailers will offer off-brand unlocked GSM and CDMA phones. As Verizon shifts to 4G LTE (aka next-generation GSM), carrier lock-in will become optional, and the market will be the better for it.

Update:

If you’re interested in this line of reasoning, I recommend checking out the following articles:

• How Apple Will Use The iPhone To Take Over The Wireless Industry, and the follow-up, Apple Did Blow Up The Wireless Industry
• Research Note: iStrategy
• The Untold Story: How the iPhone Blew Up the Wireless Industry
• How the mobile phone market works in Asia and Europe

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2008. | 2008 – The Year the US Mobile Phone Market Normalizes
This post was categorized as Personal, Terabyte home. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.